scholarly journals The geography and development of language isolates

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Urban
Keyword(s):  
Simple Model ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Qualitative Review ◽  
Historical Dynamics ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Development Of Language

This contribution theorizes the historical dynamics of so-called language isolates, languages which cannot be demonstrated to belong to any known language family. On the basis of a qualitative review of how isolates, language families or their branches lost territory to other languages through time, I develop a simple model for the genesis of isolates as a function of proximity to major geographical barriers, and pit it against an alternative view that sees them as one manifestation of linguistic diversity generally. Using a variety of statistical techniques, I test both accounts quantitatively against a worldwide dataset of language locations and distances to geographical barriers, and find support for the position that views language isolates as one manifestation of linguistic diversity generally. However, I caution that different processes which are not necessarily mutually exclusive may have shaped the present-day distribution of language isolates. These may form elements of a broader theory of language isolates in particular and language diversity in general.

scholarly journals The Duoxu Language and the Ersu-Lizu-Duoxu relationship

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia Chirkova
Keyword(s):  
Significant Contribution ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Sichuan Province ◽  
Critically Endangered ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Genetic Position ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
Vocabulary List

Duoxu is a terminally endangered and virtually undescribed Tibeto-Burman language, spoken in the historically multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Miǎnníng county of Sìchuān province in the People’s Republic of China. Until recently, Duoxu was known only through a 740-word vocabulary list in the Sino-Tibetan vocabularies Xīfān Yìyǔ [Tibetan-Chinese bilingual glossary], recorded in Chinese and Tibetan transcriptions in the 18th century, and a grammatical sketch (Huáng & Yǐn 2012). Researchers who have worked on the language (Nishida 1973, Sūn 1982, Huáng & Yǐn 2012) have expressed different views about the features and the genetic position of Duoxu, variously viewing it as (1) closely related to Lolo-Burmese languages (Nishida 1973), (2) closely related to Ersu and Lizu, two neighboring languages that are currently classified as members of the Qiangic subgroup of the Tibeto-Burman language family (Sūn 1982), or (3) distantly related to those two languages and to Qiangic languages at large (Huáng & Yǐn 2012). The Duoxu language is critically endangered and urgently requires documentation. It is of great value for our understanding of the linguistic diversity of the region, and of its linguistic history. It is also of great value as a modern reflection of a language that was recorded in the 18th century. This paper makes a significant contribution in all these areas. Based on new fieldwork with all remaining elderly Duoxu speakers, this study provides newly collected data and a new analysis. It compares the newly collected data with the 18th-century attestations of Duoxu as well as with its two putative sister languages Ersu and Lizu. The conclusion of the study is that Duoxu is closely related to Ersu and Lizu, with superficial differences attributed to long-standing and on-going contact influence from Southwestern Mandarin.

scholarly journals Genetic and linguistic histories in Central Asia inferred using approximate Bayesian computations

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1861) ◽  
pp. 20170706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Thouzeau ◽  
Philippe Mennecier ◽  
Paul Verdu ◽  
Frédéric Austerlitz
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Past History ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
The Past ◽  
Approximate Bayesian ◽  
Future Work

Linguistic and genetic data have been widely compared, but the histories underlying these descriptions are rarely jointly inferred. We developed a unique methodological framework for analysing jointly language diversity and genetic polymorphism data, to infer the past history of separation, exchange and admixture events among human populations. This method relies on approximate Bayesian computations that enable the identification of the most probable historical scenario underlying each type of data, and to infer the parameters of these scenarios. For this purpose, we developed a new computer program PopLingSim that simulates the evolution of linguistic diversity, which we coupled with an existing coalescent-based genetic simulation program, to simulate both linguistic and genetic data within a set of populations. Applying this new program to a wide linguistic and genetic dataset of Central Asia, we found several differences between linguistic and genetic histories. In particular, we showed how genetic and linguistic exchanges differed in the past in this area: some cultural exchanges were maintained without genetic exchanges. The methodological framework and the linguistic simulation tool developed here can be used in future work for disentangling complex linguistic and genetic evolutions underlying human biological and cultural histories.

scholarly journals Environmental and Linguistic Typology of Whistled Languages

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 493-510
Author(s):  
Julien Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Natural Speech ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
Language Structure

Whistled forms of languages are distributed worldwide and survive only in some of the most remote villages on the planet. They are not limited to a given continent, language family, or language structure, but they have been detected only sporadically by researchers and travelers, partly because they can be taken for nonlinguistic phenomena, such as simple signaling. Whistled speech consists of speaking while whistling to communicate at a long distance. The result is a melody that imitates modal speech and that remains intelligible for the interlocutors. This review proposes a typology of this special, little-known, natural speech type and takes socio-environmental and linguistic aspects into consideration. The amazing potential of this phenomenon to provide an alternative point of view into language diversity and speech offers a unique occasion to revisit human language with original insights embracing the adaptive flexibility that characterizes speech production and perception.

scholarly journals INTERCOMPREHENSION AND CATALAN: THE EUROCOM PROJECT

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-173
Author(s):  
Esteve Clua
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
Linguistic Family

This paper presents a method to teach intercomprehension (a strategy for simultaneous learning of receptive capacities in languages that belong to the same linguistic family) as a means for strengthening multilingualism in order to overcome communication problems generated by the growing need for interrelationships, without having to forsake language diversity. The paper introduces EuroCom, an intercomprehension project involving three large European linguistic families (Slavonic, Germanic, and Romance), and describes its methodology and strategies for learning. The article stresses the importance of intercomprehension for languages like Catalan as a strategy to truly promote the respect for linguistic diversity at the European and Spanish levels.

Thinking Language Awareness at a Science Centre

2022 ◽  
pp. 905-929
Author(s):  
Danièle Moore ◽  
Maureen Hoskyn ◽  
Jacqueline K. Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Vital Resource ◽  
Interactive Activity

Situated in the highly multilingual context of Vancouver, this article discusses aspects of a collaborative research project, intertwining the development of language awareness and scientific, technological, and multilingual literacies in a science centre environment. Participants were multilingual, kindergarten-aged children who attended an interactive, activity-based science educational program in a local science centre and participated in writing activities in a nearby community centre. The article will discuss the science centre as a transformative learning environment to harness cultural and linguistic diversity, a vital resource to simultaneously develop language awareness, and science knowledge. Multimodal data sources include visual documentation of the linguistic landscape at the science centre, as well as photographs, video recordings and field notes of children working individually or in small groups, and a selection of the products children created.

scholarly journals Larger communities create more systematic languages

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1907) ◽  
pp. 20191262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Limor Raviv ◽  
Antje Meyer ◽  
Shiri Lev-Ari
Keyword(s):  
Small Groups ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Community Size ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
The Social ◽  
Grammatical Structures

Understanding worldwide patterns of language diversity has long been a goal for evolutionary scientists, linguists and philosophers. Research over the past decade has suggested that linguistic diversity may result from differences in the social environments in which languages evolve. Specifically, recent work found that languages spoken in larger communities typically have more systematic grammatical structures. However, in the real world, community size is confounded with other social factors such as network structure and the number of second languages learners in the community, and it is often assumed that linguistic simplification is driven by these factors instead. Here, we show that in contrast to previous assumptions, community size has a unique and important influence on linguistic structure. We experimentally examine the live formation of new languages created in the laboratory by small and larger groups, and find that larger groups of interacting participants develop more systematic languages over time, and do so faster and more consistently than small groups. Small groups also vary more in their linguistic behaviours, suggesting that small communities are more vulnerable to drift. These results show that community size predicts patterns of language diversity, and suggest that an increase in community size might have contributed to language evolution.

scholarly journals The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 429-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Evans ◽  
Stephen C. Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Structural Diversity ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Human Skills ◽  
New Research ◽  
Recurrent Patterns

AbstractTalk of linguistic universals has given cognitive scientists the impression that languages are all built to a common pattern. In fact, there are vanishingly few universals of language in the direct sense that all languages exhibit them. Instead, diversity can be found at almost every level of linguistic organization. This fundamentally changes the object of enquiry from a cognitive science perspective. This target article summarizes decades of cross-linguistic work by typologists and descriptive linguists, showing just how few and unprofound the universal characteristics of language are, once we honestly confront the diversity offered to us by the world's 6,000 to 8,000 languages. After surveying the various uses of “universal,” we illustrate the ways languages vary radically in sound, meaning, and syntactic organization, and then we examine in more detail the core grammatical machinery of recursion, constituency, and grammatical relations. Although there are significant recurrent patterns in organization, these are better explained as stable engineering solutions satisfying multiple design constraints, reflecting both cultural-historical factors and the constraints of human cognition.Linguistic diversity then becomes the crucial datum for cognitive science: we are the only species with a communication system that is fundamentally variable at all levels. Recognizing the true extent of structural diversity in human language opens up exciting new research directions for cognitive scientists, offering thousands of different natural experiments given by different languages, with new opportunities for dialogue with biological paradigms concerned with change and diversity, and confronting us with the extraordinary plasticity of the highest human skills.

scholarly journals Language Prognosis and Language Diversity in the Russian Federation: Sociolinguistic Aspect

2019 ◽  
pp. 6-23
Author(s):  
Aysa Bitkeeva ◽  
Monika Wingender ◽  
Vida Mikhalchenko
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Combination Of Methods ◽  
New Research

The article considers the methodological basis of sociolinguistic research into language perspectives with a focus on linguistic diversity in the Russian Federation, the study of which is closely connected with such sociolinguistic concepts as language situation, language policy and language planning. Оver the recent decades, sociolinguistics has witnessed a real boom in new research showing a growing variety of methods for studying linguistic diversity. Closer consideration of these papers shows that the authors focus on the search for tools to analyze the prerequisites, history and current situation of linguistic diversity. However, research methods for the future development of linguistic diversity – linguistic forecasting, lack for scientific representation. Analysis of the prospects for the development of languages in present-day conditions is no less relevant research topic. The identification of the laws of language development requires a comprehensive approach from the position of sociolinguistics, which leads to the multifaceted nature of scientific research, the consideration of the object not only from the linguistic point of view, but also from sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, ethnolinguistic etc. factors. The authors present an overview of sociolinguistic methods. As part of a combination of methods, which is justified by the variety of goals and subjects of linguistic forecasting, the authors analyze some possible methods of sociolinguistic forecasting (parametric, statistical, discursive) and their practical application in the study of linguistic diversity. The article concludes with forecasts for linguistic diversity in the Russian Federation.

scholarly journals L2 Writing and L1 Composition in English: Towards an alignment of effort

2008 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155
Author(s):  
Beverly Anne Baker
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
American University ◽  
Mainstream Composition ◽  
L1 And L2 Writing ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Diverse Groups

Abstract In North American university contexts, the language diversity found in English mainstream composition (“L1”) classrooms resembles more and more that found in ESL (“L2”) writing classrooms. As these two groups become less differentiated, those specifically trained in L2 writing might well wonder whether the needs of the non-native speakers of English are acknowledged and addressed in the mainstream classrooms. The author examines several different theoretical constructs that have informed and continue to inform the literature on L1 composition pedagogy, demonstrating that some of these allow for the inclusion of linguistically diverse groups better than others. Fortunately, the recent turn to social and critical approaches to teaching composition reflect well the preoccupations of both L1 and L2 writing teachers. More and more attention is being paid to discussions of “linguistic diversity,” a term which now includes non-native speakers. This suggests a future convergence in the activities of instructors of L1 and L2 writing, leading to benefits for linguistically diverse groups.

EDUCATION STUDENTSʼ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY FROM A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojca Žefran ◽  
◽  
Anja Pirih ◽  
Silva Bratož Bratož
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Motivation For Learning

In developing the language education policy, the Council of Europe recognised the promotion of language diversity as one of Europe's key goals and e thus emphasised the teaching and dissemination of the languages of EU Member States. The development of plurilingual and multilingual competences involves, among other things, the forming of positive attitudes towards foreign/second/additional languages. It is assumed that teachers play an important role in developing learnersʼ language attitudes and can have a considerable influence on their beliefs. Therefore, the main aim of the present study is to identify and explore future teachers‟ attitudes towards linguistic diversity from a comparative perspective. A survey conducted among Slovene and German students who are studying to be primary school teachers looks atthe respondents‟general attitudes and beliefs related to language learning and linguistic diversity, their motivation for learning additional languages and their attitudes towards connecting language and culture. Finally, since the two institutions surveyed are both located in bilingual environments, the study investigates the different ways in which environmental factors shape education students‟ views and attitudes towards multilingualism. The results suggest a rather complex picture of attitudes and beliefs as expressed by the population surveyed.

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